The present invention relates to slide frames and a slide magazine for storing such slide frames.
It is known to provide slide magazines for storing and for charging slides into a projector. These slide magazines usually require considerable space.
Such a known slide magazine includes a housing having an interior which is subdivided, according to the indexing steps of conventional magazine projectors, into a plurality of compartments. Each compartment receives a slide. Thus, for example, if the indexing step of the projector is 5.2 mm each compartment may receive a slide having a thickness of up to 3.2 mm. The compartments are separated from one another by side walls.
Thus, the slide magazine requires a substantial space which includes useful space for the slide frames in the slide magazine and useless space for the side walls. The space required by the known slide magazines is substantially larger than that required for just the slide frames in such a slide magazine.
Thus, for example, for accommodating of 36 slides which together can take up at utmost (in the care of extra-thick slides) only 288cm.sup.3 of space, one needs a slide magazine which requires as much as 630 cm.sup.3 of space. The relation between the space required for accommodation of the slides perse and the space of the conventional slide magazine for this purpose becomes even less effective in the case of non-glass slides. Thus, a set of 36 non-glass slides (each having the thickness of 2 mm) requires a space of only 180 cm.sup.3.
Such a disproportionately large space occupied by the slide magazine is a very negative factor for an active user of the slides since he or she has to provide a significant space for the slide magazine each time the projector is in use.
On the other hand, should the slide magazine be even slightly inclined relative to a vertical position thereof (let alone an upside-down position of the slide magazine) the slides may fall out of the magazine. Obviously, this will cause problems for the user.
It has been suggested (e.g. German Offenlegungsschrift 1901091) to provide a slide magazine of separate parts connectable to one another. The slide magazine, further may include a number of elastic clamp carriers connectable to one another (e.g. German Offenlegungsschrift 2 145 997). These slide magazines only additionally complicate the process of installing, changing and displacing the slides. Moreover, such slide magazines require an especial step-by-step switch arrangement for the projector. These slide magazines, however, do not effectively solve the problem of saving the space occupied by the slide magazines.
The floor space required for the slide magazine may be saved, if one dispenses with the slide magazine per se and connects the slides directly one to another.
In German Offenlegungsschrift 2 031 484, there is described a slide package in which the slides are arranged in a line (i.e., row) one after another. Each slide is provided with a hole in an edge-corner portion of the slide. Thus, two adjacent slides are so arranged relative to each other that the respective holes of these slides are in allignment with each other and a pin is inserted through both holes so as to connect the adjacent slides to each other. The adjacent slides are swingable relative to each other. However, in order to project the thusly connected slides one has to have an entirely different (i.e., from a conventional type) projector which even when operated semiautomatically, can not demonstrate the conventional slides.
In German Pat. No. 1 296 820 it has been suggested to provide a slide with a slide frame. The slide frames are stacked together in a frame package so that each frame before demonstration by means of the projector is removed from and after demonstration inserted in the package. Each side surface of the frame is provided with parallel ribs bounding a plurality of inclined recesses. The ribs and the recesses of one slide frame interlock with the corresponding ribs and the recesses of the opposite side of the adjacent slide frame. Even such an arrangement of the slide frames stipulates a switch arrangement, different from that of the conventional projector, for changing the slides in a step-by-step manner. Such slide frames, due to the ribs projecting outwardly from the opposite side surfaces of the slide frame, can not be right away used in a conventional partitioned slide magazine. Moreover, a conventional projector, provided with a conventional arrangement for holding a slide frame, becomes useless for the slide frames having the above mentioned ribs. The manufacturing expenses of such slide frames are comparatively high, since die molds, for molding the inclined outer surface of the slide frame, have to be correspondingly inclined and separated. Obviously, such a requirement for manufacturing and installing the die molds make the process of molding the slide frames (i.e., which is already relatively expensive) even more expensive.